Barefoot Vegan Mag Jan_Feb 2017

“For the general
public, my hope is
that the book will
prompt them to
question what
appears to be
“normal” in their
everyday lives…”
“might-makes-right” worldview. Thanksgiving is an
important example of how these fictions are alive and
well today, sabotaging our judgment to support
unspeakable horrors in the name of tradition and
culture.
like hell to avoid pain and death. Once we believe in consent,
then it’s just a matter of how we treat them. Use is off the
table since it is assumed that they don’t mind being used. This
is why humane-washing has emerged as such a prominent
fictional device today.
You mention how since the beginning of our
recorded history, humans have used
narratives of animals choosing to sacrifice
themselves for the greater good, and how we
have made up elaborate rituals around the
killing of animals for food as a form of
repentance and absolution of guilt. How do
you see this still being a part of people’s
psyches and being played out today?
Whenever some new-age, hipster foodie who captures the
media’s attention waxes spiritual about how we must “give
thanks” or “honour the sacrifice” of the animals we needlessly
exploit and kill for food, we can be sure they are invoking
ancient fictions that are as old as civilisation itself. There’s
absolutely nothing progressive about this “tooth and claw”,
Your book points out the kind of
marketing budgets that the animal
agriculture industry has to target
consumers – annual budgets over a
billion US dollars! What does this
mean for organisations trying to effect
change? How can we compete with
those kinds of resources?
It’s important to realise that aside from advertising, the
entire entertainment, television and film industry, as
well as the mass media where we get our news about
the world, are all disseminating the fictions of animal
consumption. What does it mean for us? Most
fundamentally, it means we must recognise the power
of ideas, beliefs and values in shaping our behaviour
and choices. The fact that corporations spend billions
of dollars on appealing to those beliefs and values is a
testament to just how powerful they are. It means that
just advocating behaviour changes, such as Meatless
Monday, will never even begin to challenge those
beliefs that are necessary for the meaningful change we
want to see. As for how do we compete? The answer is >
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